#jameschalarm

Ghosts, ghouls and spirituality - I was so happy to have QLs break away from the typical cookie cutter plots this year, Khemjira, Runaway and GBYFD have been the high points of my year. I admittedly have always been a horror hound first, so when these series came out I was absolutely thrilled and I’m so glad that they lived up to the hype.

The return of CBLs - It feels like it’s 2016 again, the amount of horny red flag Chinese BLs that were released this year really felt like time traveling backwards. Revenged Love, ABO Desire, Kill to Love, To My Shore. If there’s one thing CBL’s will always do the best, it’s absolutely sociopathic level red flag characters.

The rise of the live action Omegaverse - Pit Babe might have kinda-sorta-tried to get it started, but let’s be honest it was all flushed down the toilet when the writer wussed tf out once they realized what ABO actually was about; take note, always do your research before starting your story. Anyway! I was actually surprised that the first proper Omegaverse series was a CBL, I always expected Japan to get to it first. What with the popularity of ABO Desire, I’m really looking forward to more companies taking a chance with Omegaverse stories. KNOT looks completely unhinged, so who better to take that on than BoatOat, they’ll eat those roles up. I’m still convinced that Pavel pouted when he found out he wasn’t going to get to play a pregnant Babe in season two of Pit Babe, and I refuse to believe otherwise lol.

Non-penetrative sex scenes - It was nice to see intimate scenes that didn’t jump right into anal sex between the characters, that’s just not realistic and there’s more to sex than the basic tab A into slot B type of fair. This year brought with it handjobs, blowjobs and frottage, bravo for growth!

GIF snagged from @babybison because Tumblr’s gif search engine hates any GIF marked as mature. This is not my GIF, check out the great set from this scene here.

Safe sex - Continuing on with the NC talk, safe sex was also shown a bit more often. Condoms, lube, prep and clean up. The most notable is of course the iconic kitchen scene from the My Stubborn special episodes, but there was mention of condoms and safe sex in quite a few other series just none as explicit as that one.

Return of the OGs - KristSingto starting the year with their first series together in years, Saint making his return to BLs, BounPrem finally getting their vampire series. It was just nice to see some of the OGs on my screen again.

Artists coming out - I’m so happy that more and more artists are feeling comfortable coming out or speaking about their relationships, no one should have to live in the closet. JamesChalarm, ChanceGuno, Pangjie and Lego instantly come to mind. And of course Daou’s continued presence as an unapologetic bi king, which will always be a welcomed thing.